1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for locating defibrillators and potential operators of the defibrillators to administer to a victim.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electrotherapy devices are used to provide electric shocks to treat patients for a variety of heart arrhythmias. For example, external defibrillators typically provide relatively high-energy shocks to a patient (as compared to implantable defibrillators), usually through electrodes attached to the patient""s torso. External defibrillators are used to convert ventricular fibrillation (xe2x80x9cVFxe2x80x9d) or shockable ventricular tachycardia (xe2x80x9cVTxe2x80x9d) to a normal sinus rhythm. Similarly, external cardioverters can be used to provide paced shocks to convert atrial fibrillation (xe2x80x9cAFxe2x80x9d) to a more normal heart rhythm.
Sudden cardiac arrest (xe2x80x9cSCAxe2x80x9d) is the leading cause of unanticipated death in the United States. On average, about 600 people per day die of SCA. This translates to nearly one death every two minutes. It is likely that these statistics would, at a minimum, hold true for third world countries. Precise international statistics are not available but the U.S. rate for coronary heart disease deaths, of which sudden deaths constitute nearly half, is representative of international rates (rank 16th and 13 th among 36 nations reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), for men and women, respectively).
Most sudden cardiac death is caused by VF, in which the heart""s muscle fibers contract without coordination, thereby interrupting normal blood flow to the body. The only effective treatment for VF is electrical defibrillation, which applies an electrical shock to the patient""s heart. The electrical shock clears the heart of the abnormal electrical activity (in a process called xe2x80x9cdefibrillationxe2x80x9d) by depolarizing a critical mass of myocardial cells to allow spontaneous organized myocardial depolarization to resume.
To be effective, the defibrillation shock must be delivered to the patient within minutes of the onset of VF. Studies have shown that defibrillation shocks delivered within one minute after the onset of VF achieve up to a 100% survival rate. However, the survival rate falls to approximately 30% after only 6 minutes. Beyond 12 minutes, the survival rate approaches zero. Importantly, the more time that passes, the longer the brain is deprived of oxygen and the more likely that brain damage will result. As improved access to defibrillators increases, survival rates from SCA also increase.
Currently, in a typical scenario, a witness to a victim contacts an emergency response operator, such as by dialing 911 or public service access points, to alert the operator to the existence of the victim. The emergency response operator then dispatches an emergency response team, such as firefighting teams, paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to the site of the victim. Emergency response systems rely on notification of the operator or dispatcher and the urgent dispatch of centralized resources and highly trained personnel to the site of the victim.
The above-described system may work well in many situations.
However, given the short response time necessary to address cardiac emergencies, the currently utilized system may not provide timely response in numerous instances. For example, traffic congestion in many metropolitan areas as well as large travel distances in both in rural areas and urban areas may prevent timely response to 911 calls. For example, the probability of successfully resuscitating a victim of sudden cardiac arrest declines from approximately 90% in the first minute post-cardiac arrest to less than about 10% after about 10 minutes. Also, as time goes on, the chances of brain damage due to lack of oxygen as a result of lack of blood flow or other unfavorable affects greatly increase with increased passage of time after a cardiac arrest.
Current emergency medical response systems do not reliably respond in less than ten minutes in many environments and particularly not in high population density environments because of crowding, traffic, and/or long delays to ascend high-rise buildings, among other factors. As a result of delayed treatment, the vast majority of out of hospital sudden cardiac arrest victims die.
In some areas, implementation of publicly accessible automatic defibrillation systems provides a partial solution to delay in emergency medical response systems to treat cardiac arrest victims. The automatic defibrillation systems include automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) deployed in publicly accessible locations and capable of application by minimally trained operators or untrained lay people. Such systems typically rely on information campaigns and local signage to bring attention to the availability and location of AEDs. Publicly available defibrillators have provided some success in highly trafficked narrowly constrained areas, such as Chicago O""Hare Airport. However, success in more general areas is doubtful. Also, increasing the possibility of success in even highly trafficked areas would be desirable.
The present invention relates to a system and method that addresses the lack of knowledge of AEDs. The present invention helps to rapidly locate victims, defibrillators, and/or potential operators of the defibrillators.
A system according to the present invention rapidly recruits automatic external defibrillators and operators of the defibrillators. The system includes a locator operable to determine locations of the defibrillators, a victim, and/or a potential operator of the defibrillators. A communicator is operable to communicate the location of at least one of the defibrillators to the potential operator.
Additionally, the present invention concerns a method for rapid recruitment of automatic external defibrillators and operators of the defibrillators. According to the method, a location of a victim that could benefit from application of a defibrillator is identified. Also, location of a potential operator of the defibrillator is identified. Additionally, a location of the defibrillator for use by the potential operator is identified. The location of the defibrillator is communicated to the potential operator.
Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent by those skilled in the art from a review of the following detailed description. The detailed description shows and describes preferred embodiments of the invention, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated of carrying out the present invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description are illustrative in nature and not restrictive.